Four Duck Species

Young Naturalist J took this photo with four different species of duck in it. The quiz is naming all 4 species of duck and a bonus points if you can prove there are more than two species of scaup here!

I’m thinking the Lesser has a head shaped like a conehead, like a lowland gorilla. The Greater has a rounder head. I think the Greater one is in the middle of the photo. I think the duck to the right of him is a female Lesser but her head is turned so you don’t see the white around the bill. I don’t see the Ruddy others are commenting about. I saw one there a couple of weeks ago but their pronounced tails stick up out of the water. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place for that. I can’t wait for the answer from the expert!

Nathan should be banned from these things. I agree with him and am just wondering if that isolated bird in the center might be a female Goldeneye (making it a 5-species pic, which I suppose it isn’t or it would have been called accordingly by the authors).

I’ll say Red-breasted Merg (nice male front and center, plus many more), Greater Scaup (the female in the front left has the classic head shape), Bufflehead (top left), and…erm…Ruddy Duck (male near the top right).

I’m not sure about the last two.
The Greater Scaup is in the middle, the other three male scaups are Lesser Scaups. You can tell them apart by their foreheads; Greater Scaup has a lower, more rounded forehead.

Did you mean to say prove there is more than one species of scaup?? Or more than two Aythya sp. perhaps?

I see Red-breasted Merganser (11 or so), Bufflehead (2), Lesser Scaup (5?), two possible Ruddy Ducks in the back, and what looks like a Greater Scaup right in the middle of the front group. It appears to have a rounded head than the Lessers beside it. It could just be the photo angle though. So, are there 5 species?

I see 8 species. Red-breasted merg, Both Scaup, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye (the duck in between the two rafts and dead center in the photo). That’s 6.
However, there is a 7th species floating in the raft in the foreground. From the Red-breasted Merg, go back one duck and over one duck. It is not a Goldeneye and is certainly not a Scaup. Perhaps a female Wigeon?
Oh, and the male duck that is second from the left is a Ring-necked. That makes 8.

Well, amount of white has nothing to do with it. I see what you mean though. You missed a field mark. The tail is sticking up.
What do you think the bird to the right of the Gr Scaup is? It’s not a merg.

Greater . . . Lesser Scaup . . . I will let you guys battle that one out! I could only really figure out the Greater Scaup being there but I was never good with their ID (reason for bonus points)! Regarding the other species . . . . the Red-breasted Merganser was an easy one! The Bufflehead was also another almost easy one to find! The Ruddy Duck was the trick one that most of you got! So answer was Scaup Species (I thought only Greater but their could be Lesser there), Red-breasted Merganser, Ruddy Duck and Bufflehead!!

Regarding the Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye and American Wigeon . . . . I never recorded in my note book seeing any of them! We looked hard to find as many species as we could in that hour and although the camera makes some species blurry . . . I would have at least wrote them down in my notebook if they were there (we had 4 eyes looking)!

I have another quiz to do here soon but just got back from a 3 day trip! Will try to get it posted tomorrow!

If yes, I highly doubt it’s any grebe species. The head is too large and shaped wrong, and the bill is placed to far “down” on the “face.” My personal impression was a female Greater Scaup. Any reason why it’s not?

I think he meant the bird below the GRSC you circled there. I think the bird he was talking about is a RB Merg but that’s just me. I still see 5 species when I look at it. There may be some little specks in the back that are different, but it’d be impossible to tell for sure from this shot.

birdQUIZ

Welcome everyone to the birdQUIZ blog that will help you with your bird identification skills. Feel free to use any kind of reference you have available for your identification (Sibley’s Field Guide is recommended)!! Good Luck Everyone!

If you need spoilers click on the comments but I strongly suggest that you try to identify the bird first before moving down to see what answers have been given already. The person who commented could be wrong!! Most or all of these birds have been identified in the hand already and we know the answer (unless we say we don't know the answer).

Please note that we will not be updating this on a daily basis and started it because we thought would be fun to do. Please check out the main blog at "Mon@rch's Nature Blog" and "The Ovenbird"

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